The battle of the bottle

by Daniel Ausbun

There was a man who received a phone call and the man at the other end said, “Are you Mr. Smith?”

“Yes,” said Mr. Smith.

“Do you have a daughter who’s sixteen?” said the man on the other end.

“Yes” answered Mr. Smith.

“Does she drive a gold Toyota Corolla?”

“Yes. What is it? Get to the point,” said Mr. Smith.

“Well Mr. Smith, this is the highway patrolman. There’s been an accident.”

“Is my daughter hurt?” asked Mr. Smith.

“Sir, we want you to come down to the morgue and make an identification.”

“What if she’s not my daughter?” the father asked.

“It may not be your daughter. We think she is your daughter. She’s been killed in a car accident,” the patrolman stated.

Mr. Smith got into his car and drove to the hospital and went into the section of the hospital with the morgue. He opened the drawer and pulled back the sheet. Even though she was mutilated, scarred and slashed, he knew it was his daughter. He cried, “My God, that’s my daughter! That’s my precious daughter! How did it happen?”

“Sir,” said the patrolman, “we don’t know how it happened. Somehow there was a curve, and they didn’t make it. I will tell you this sir, we found a broken whiskey bottle in the car.”

“A whiskey bottle?” asked Mr. Smith. “They’re just children. She’s just a little girl. Do you mean that somebody sold those children liquor?” the father exclaimed.

And for a moment Mr. Smith forgot his grief. And his grief turned to a raging anger.

He said, “If I could find the scum that sold my baby girl that liquor, with my bare hands I’d tear him apart!”

He went home, his life a mixture of grief and fierce anger. He was shaking, trembling. When he got home he wanted something to steady his nerves. He went to his liquor cabinet. He opened his liquor cabinet and put his hand in to get his bottle. It wasn’t there.

All he found was a note. It read, “Daddy, we wanted to celebrate. We borrowed your bottle. We’ll pay you back daddy. Hope you don’t mind.”

You may be very surprised with whom you hurt with your ability to hold your liquor. Very surprised.

Let me tell you why total abstinence is best.

1). Total abstinence has no harmful effects.

2). Total abstinence does not murder innocent people.

3). Total abstinence causes no loss to industry.

4). Total abstinence will not destroy families.

5). There will be no loss of health with total abstinence.

6). Total abstinence is not contrary to the law of love.

7). Total abstinence will not harm the one who practices it or anybody else.

What is the mastery of the bottle?

If you don’t drink, don’t start. Getting drunk is the Devil’s substitute for being filled with the Spirit. There’s power in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Whether He does it instantaneously or whether He does it over time, Jesus Christ can heal and Jesus Christ can deliver. If Jesus Christ can’t save a drunkard, I don’t want to have anything to do with Him.

Beware of self-righteousness if you don’t drink. If you’ve never touched a drop of liquor your whole life and don’t have Jesus, you’d go to hell sober.

Proverbs 20:1 “Wine is a mocker, beer is a brawler, and whoever staggers because of them is not wise.”

Proverbs 23:31-32 “Don’t gaze at wine because it is red, when it gleams in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.”